pirate

There has been a lot of talk lately about Windows 10, considering it will land in users' hands by Summer this year. One of the most talked about point, however, is the possibility that the upgrade might be available for pirated copies of older versions, particularly Windows XP. And they might even get it for free like other legitimate Windows owners. In a practice of perfect PR ambiguity, Microsoft has "clarified" its plans for owners of non-genuine Windows copies, but at the same time, leaves some of the important questions still unanswered.

Pirated content is a hotly debated topic, but the stance from film production houses is pretty clear: they’re not into it. Piracy has it’s proponents (mostly consumers who just want free stuff), but the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) isn’t one of them. With the hack on Sony, we now see just how vehemently opposed they really are. Emails traded between the MPAA and various studio bosses reveal a common enemy in Goliath, which is believed to be Google. They even accuse Google of being “childish”.

In a ruling that some have called yet another nail in the coffin, a federal judge dismissed a case against one of the defendants in a mass BitTorrent lawsuit. According to him, the IP address being used by the plaintiff as its sole evidence is not enough to prove criminal liability in the act of piracy.

The end of 2013 is nearly here with only a handful of days left before we ring in the new year. As we all know, the downloading of TV shows from various websites online is a common and rampant practice. The list of the year's most pirated TV shows has been published and a familiar name sits atop the list as the most pirated show of 2013.

Piracy of Football Manager 2013 saw more than 10m people illegally download the game since mid-May 2013, Sports Interactive chief Miles Jacobson has revealed, with one copy even being stolen by a user in the Vatican. The title, released for PC in November 2012, was cracked on May 12th, Jacobson said during the London Games Conference 2013, MCV reports, but IP tracking software allowed the studio to monitor exactly where each pirated copy was being downloaded.

Hollywood has been fighting the battle against file sharing sites for years in an attempt to stop what it sees as conduits for piracy. The legal battle surrounding these file sharing sites ended up with Google blacklisting major file sharing sites such as 4Shared, The Pirate Bay, and isoHunt back in 2011. Getting the sites blacklisted from major search engines wasn't the end of the battle with Hollywood continuing its legal campaign.

RIAA CEO Cary Sherman recently outlined his vision for improved cooperation between copyright holders and service providers. Sherman says that he will seek agreements that will see file hosting sites be required scan incoming links for piracy. Sherman also wants search engines like Google to do more to prevent piracy.

The media industry has had a long and adversarial relationship with piracy, and Netflix, who provides legitimate streaming access to content, is no different. So it sounds ironic, and yet at the same time almost unexpected, that Netflix indirectly benefits from piracy by helping it choose which shows to buy.

The Pirate Bay has been hit with yet another blow after an Irish court has ordered six internet service providers in the country to block access to The Pirate Bay. The court order was sparked by complaints from four music labels that the file-sharing website was hosting copyrighted content.

On January 8, we reported that Xiang Li had plead guilty in what was being called the most successful copyright criminal prosecution to ever take place. The pirate ran website Crack99.com, as well as some lesser known domains, which sold copyrighted software at discounted rates. While originally word had it he faced a possible 5 years in prison, his sentencing today slammed him with 12 years.